- Which video resonated with you and why?
The video that resonated with me most was the Tamron Hall video. Hall stated that the hardest part about life is waking up in the morning. She hits the snooze button about four times and has even trained her body to wake up to Pandora. A joking aside made in her interview, Hall’s rhetoric closely relates to my difficulty waking up and placing her feet on the floor.
“Waking up” is not limited to the grueling task of getting up out of bed in the morning. It can also apply to beginning a “grueling” task. Too often, I take ample time to begin tasks, whether big or small, easy or difficult. I ponder the implementation for completing the tasks, but executing has been an internal battle for me. Executing is not my issue. How I will execute a task is where I will get stuck.
Before I came to Howard University, I thought I had a laid-back personality. In high school, I was not eager to take the lead. I showcased a more reserved attitude. After coming to Howard, it was more evident to me that the reserved nature that I exhibited in high school was not a true reflection of my personality. I like to be in control of situations and control the narrative. There is a good side and a bad side to this. The good side is that I like to put my best effort into making sure that my projects are perfect. On the other hand, the bad side is that I worry too much about being perfect. Worrying about “what ifs” prevents progress. As I finish my Howard journey, I want to stop preventing my progress and start “waking up.”
- How has broadcast news impacted the Civil Rights Movement?
Broadcast news significantly impacted the Civil Rights Movement by bringing a face to the brutality and dehumanizing acts that police officers and White people used against those that participated in the Movement. For example, Walter Cronkite’s first evening newscast featured a story covered by Dan Rather in troubled Plaquemine, Louisiana, in 1963.
Mounted state troopers on horseback and police used tear gas and high-pressure water hoses to break-up a Civil Rights demonstration, which almost erupted into a race riot. There was a federal district court restraining order against demonstrations. This gave the Louisiana lawmen the “right” to disperse the crowd. Instead of nonviolently ordering the crowd to disperse, lawmen used nightsticks, clubs and tear gas and cattle prods to break-up the two demonstrations. The lawmen also used fire hoses to ensure Black people kept running and to ensure that they could not find places of concealment. These egregious and unlawful acts by law enforcement was documented for everyone in the United States to see. The CBS broadcast showed us the violent dispersal of the demonstrators by the policemen and sheriffs.
The CBS broadcast also showed us the brutal aftermath. A Black man had blood on his shirt, possibly resulting from being beaten by a club. Rather also reports that a girl had to be carried from under a church pew after collapsing from being tear gassed. The church was in shambles. The video was very disturbing watch, but it portrayed the uncomfortable reality of what it meant to be Black in America in the time. With the horrific treatment of Black people now being televised, I believe it further encouraged Civil Rights, church leaders and the Black Panthers to continue to advocate for change to come in America and to come fast.
- How has CNN revolutionized the news industry?
On June 1, 1980, Cable News Network (CNN) had launched the first 24-hour news channel. David Walker and Lois Hart anchored CNN’s first newscast. A question surrounded CNN was whether CNN could fill a 24-hour news cycle.
But CNN’s founder, Ted Turner, was a visionary. ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS broadcasted on public television, which was dedicated to educational programming. Turner dedicated CNN to America. He also dedicated the Network to the world. Turner hoped the cable news network with its in-depth coverage and international coverage would bring a better understanding of how people from different nations live. He also hoped that people within America would work together in brotherhood and in kindness.
Turner’s vision to create CNN had its opponents. Research said that Turner would make a bad gamble, but CNN was a new discovery. The launch of CNN was during the heyday for anchors, enabling the ratings to be huge. In the video, Walker recounts the “wild moment” for CNN. During the First Gulf War, CNN had live reports coming out of Baghdad. There were great visuals of the bombs going off and terrific reporting. Walker believed that those visuals made the world and the nation go “wow.”
Additionally, Hart stated that CNN has become a commodity. “CNN has provided a product over the years that the world would never have gotten any other way, which is a window to the world really,” remarked Hart. Hart continued, “That wouldn’t have happened and wouldn’t have driven the rest of the cable networks to be born.”
- How has convergence affected the news industry?
Convergence is the coming together of different media forms with the Internet being the dominant form. Newsrooms are now becoming digital newsrooms. The number of journalists working in print media has been cut drastically. There is less capacity for journalists to go out to the field and report stories. Journalists are now inclined to stay at their desks and use Google to find out what is going on. For example, more press releases have been recycled in the last 10 years.
Regardless of Google being right at a journalist’s fingertips, convergence has forced a journalist to be multi-skilled. The command desk now draws up the news agenda that comes up with how stories can be told across every platform. Furthermore, news is now flowing in a linear fashion on the headline screens, on websites and then into print in a seamless fashion. News is moving faster on a 24-hour cycle. It does not quit and is reflecting of the new technology. Newspapers and wire service are affected by convergence. They now have to do a more in-depth, step back stories to give readers perspective and analysis on events. Newspapers are not used to producing news in real-time. However, they now place stories on websites in almost real-time.
In addition, the public is now involved in the story-making process and news gathering. The public comments on social media serves as an intricate role in the process, as journalists use these comments to craft an angle to their stories.
More importantly, convergence has benefitted the news industry by enabling a multitude of ways to tell a story. One can use interactive infographics, videos and other forms of multimedia. Convergence has negatively impacted the news industry by the immediacy of news. Many news outlets strive to be first to report the news. Striving to be first can undermine the integrity of journalism by allowing journalists to be first and wrong.
- What is the most challenging aspect for a journalist in today’s changing media environment?
The most challenging aspect for a journalist today is staying marketable and multi-faceted in an industry that is constantly being bombarded by the Internet. Bob Becken, the Regional News Director for Blackburn Radio said that the station has “two full time people less but produces twice as much content.” This statement harkens strongly on the impact that new technology has had on journalism. Becken mentioned that journalists must ask the questions that need to be asked to get to the heart of any story and tell stories in a way that people will understand them. He stated that the latter is the hardest part of a journalist’s job.
But the impact of new technology has completed transformed how journalists ask the questions that need to be asked, how they get to the heart of any story and how they tell stories in a way that people will understand them. Journalists can now rely on social media to cover news stories. Social media has enabled everyone to be a journalist. Furthermore, Twitter has made competition more intense because it is now considered a legitimate platform for disseminating news. Audiences now have a shorter attention span because they are suffering from the “140-character complex.” This forces a journalist to have a more creative approach for his or her story.
For those who did not grow up in the millennial generation, there is a natural tendency to be fearful about new technology and its capabilities. On the other hand, retaining a role in traditional media requires a journalist to be multimedia all the time. Susan Fuehr, the Assistant Producer of CBC Windsor, said, “The deadline now in this age of new technology was five minutes ago.” Fuehr’s statement is both critical and eye-opening to those journalists that have to enter a “retraining” period to stay with and get ahead of the technology revolution. While these journalists must adapt to new technology, they have to still adhere to their outlets’ morals and standards. More importantly, journalists have to remain adamant to their watchdog roles, as the ubiquity of access to the Internet and information continues to grow.
- What did you learn most from “A Day in the Life of a Newsroom”?
The video starts off with the CBS 5 anchor introducing the concept that we as viewers often forget the many talented individuals who work extremely hard behind-the-scenes to produce a newscast. The anchor is right. Too often, I rate a broadcast specifically by the anchor or anchors’ style and angle of reporting. There is no possible way that an anchor can carry a newscast by himself or herself. It takes a dedicated team working in sync to produce a dynamic newscast. I learned how intricate and detailed a typical day in the newsroom is.
The video provided a viewer with a detailed rundown of a usual day in the CBS 5 newsroom. The day begins with the morning newscast being underway. The assignment desk manager and managing editors work through possible story ideas that they include in a preliminary rundown. I learned that the preliminary rundown can feature stories that might end up on the evening news. From there, the rundown is then distributed at the morning meeting.
The show producers, the executive producers, managing editor and assistant news director gather together to decide what stories to cover, how they will be covered and for what shows. Reporters call in to pitch their ideas and are then assigned to a photographer. A producer then decides on the length of each story, where it appears in the newscast and assigns writers. All this goes on before the first newscast. Production assistants are very crucial to a news team, tracks down and cues video tape and sometimes runs last minute scripts to the anchors and the control room.
The control room has another a team that includes the show director, assistant director, technical director and audio technician. Together this team takes all of the elements of the newscast, the edited stories electronically mixes them into one smooth newscast.
The newsroom is comprised of different teams of professionals who have a set role in creating a newscast. The video offered a visual of the well-orchestrated chaos that Chapter 3 depicted. The many players in a newsroom each have distinguished roles. The next time I watch a newscast, I will remember all of the professionals that helped produce it.
- Finally, what are your thoughts on Tamron Hall’s comments? And why?
Tamron Hall is a former anchor for NBC and MSNBC. She joined NBC News in 2007. On Feb. 1, 2017, Hall departed from the former as her contract would expire by the end of the month. Hall first achieved prominence when she became the substitute anchor for Keith Olbermann on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Hall went on to host or co-anchor other shows on the NBC network and MSNBC. She is the first African American woman to co-anchor the Today show.
In 2014, Essence interviewed Hall soon after Hall had landed her position as a Today show anchor. Hall stated how her late father turned on the television and pointed to Lola Johnson–the first African American news anchor to work for a Dallas television station–looked to his daughter and said, “That could be you.”
I believe referencing this exclusive interview is extremely important when reviewing Hall’s 2015 Huffington Post interview where she discusses the question that she gets asked all the time. Hall states that she “turns” a young girl around every time a young girl asks her a question beginning with ‘how hard is it as a black woman’ or ‘how hard is it as a woman.’ Hall believes that we cannot look at the roadblocks and see the road at the same time. Furthermore, Hall believes that focusing on challenges, such as “stereotypes,” cannot allow people to move forward.
Hall’s statements are unfortunate and undermine the importance of overcoming challenges and creating history. In her discourse with young girls, Hall should encourage young girls to use stereotypes to empower themselves, rather than “not focusing” on the challenges. I think it is a naive way of thinking. The process of getting to the top is more important to me than reaching one’s actual goal. I believe overcoming racism, sexism or other challenges elevates one’s process. Overlooking these challenges discounts someone’s story.
Nkechi Nnorom's Portfolio 